Kenny Morris (musician)

Kenny Morris
Morris performing live with Siouxsie and the Banshees, June 1979
Background information
Birth nameKenneth Ian Morris
Born (1957-02-01) 1 February 1957 (age 67)
OriginUnited Kingdom
GenresPost-punk (music)
Experimental (film)
Occupation(s)Musician, painter, drawer, filmmaker
InstrumentDrums
WebsiteOfficial website

Kenneth Ian Morris (born 1 February 1957), known professionally as Kenny Morris, is an English drummer, songwriter and visual artist. He was the first studio drummer of Siouxsie and the Banshees. He joined the band in January 1977; he had attended their first live appearance at the 100 Club a few months earlier and had been impressed by their performance. Morris's first studio recording with the group was in November 1977 when they recorded their first John Peel session for BBC radio. Music journalist Kris Needs said : "Like as a rhythm machine for feet and guts Kenny Morris' drumming is unorthodox, primitive (in a tribal sense) and far removed from the clicking hi-hats of the fly-strength paradiddle merchants".[1]

He played mostly toms. He has been cited as a major influence by several drummers of the post-punk era including Stephen Morris of Joy Division,[2] Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus,[3] and Paul Ferguson of Killing Joke.[4]

During the recording of the band's debut single "Hong Kong Garden", producer Steve Lillywhite suggested to him to record the drums separately. Morris did the bass drum and the snare drum first. He did the cymbals and the tom-toms later.[5] Lillywhite also added echo on the drums, adding significant space to the entire recording. NME wrote that Lillywhite's work with Morris "revolutionis[ed] the post-punk band's sound with an innovative approach to laying down the drums".[6]

Morris played on the albums The Scream (1978) and Join Hands (1979). He left the band a few hours before a concert in Aberdeen at the beginning of the Join Hands tour, on 7 September 1979.

Life and career

Kenny Morris was born of Irish parents.[7] He grew up in Waltham Abbey, Essex.[8] He attended St Ignatius' College in Enfield, where he became a friend of future collaborator and film director John Maybury. Morris then attended Barnet College in London.[9] He also studied fine art and film-making at North East London Polytechnic. He first talked with Siouxsie and the Banshees in September 1976 after seeing their first concert at the 100 Club in London. He was attending Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts when he briefly joined the band the Flowers of Romance playing with a creative collective of emerging musicians which included Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and Keith Levene (an early member of The Clash and later of Public Image Ltd), but after several months of rehearsals, they split up before playing any concerts together, recording nothing.[10]

He joined Siouxsie and the Banshees in January 1977. He played cymbals-less drumming on most of their songs.[2] He also did a lot of percussion overdubs on the band's album The Scream.[11]

After leaving the Banshees, Morris worked as a drummer with Helen Terry and other musicians for live stage sets. He recorded and produced a 12" inch vinyl featuring two spoken words, performed by Dorothée Lalanne; "La Main Morte" and "Le Testament d'Auguste Rodin". "La Main Morte" was a film soundtrack co-composed with Maybury and Jean-Pierre Baudry (from French band Marc Seberg). "La Main Morte" was released on Genesis P-Orridge's Temple Records.[12]

Morris also directed five short films including La Main Morte, Blind Obedience, Le Trois Grace, Marilyn and Summer House. The films were all uploaded on his YouTube channel.[13]

In 1993, after living in London for twenty years, Morris moved to Ireland and, with a BA Honours degree in Fine Art, held several teaching posts.[7] He ran an art gallery in Kildare Town in the late 1990s.[14]

He paints and draws and sells his work online via his facebook official site.[15] He now resides in Cork, Ireland where he continues practicing and teaching Art.[16]

In January 2021, he revealed in an interview that he had written his memoir.[17] The book is scheduled for publication in 2025.[18]

In March 2024, there was an exhibition of his artworks in Dublin; the art show was titled A Banshee Left Wailing.[18]

References

  1. ^ Needs, Kris (December 1978). "Overboard For... Funtime?". ZigZag.
  2. ^ a b Morris, Stephen (2019). Record Play Pause: Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist: The Joy Division Years Volume I. Constable. ISBN 978-1472126207. It would be Siouxsie and the Banshees to whom I most felt some kind of affinity. [...] the bass-led rhythm, the way first drummer Kenny Morris played mostly toms. In interviews Siouxsie would claim the sound of cymbals was forbidden [...] The Banshees had that [...] foreboding sound, sketching out the future from the dark of the past. [...] hearing the sessions they'd done on John Peel's show and reading gigs write-ups, I had to admit they sounded interesting.
    "Joy Division". Record Collector. 2020. Morris – a young Hawkwind/krautrock fan whose revolving drum patterns were inspired by Can's Jaki Liebezeit and the Banshees' Kenny Morris.
  3. ^ Lyon, Judy (20 October 2018). "Bauhaus' Kevin Haskins On His Involvement with Foxes Tv". Torchedmagazine. Retrieved 1 November 2018. At the time there were two drummers who had an influence on me namely, Steven Morris from Joy Division and Kenny Morris from Siouxsie And The Banshees. With Kenny [Morris], I loved how he would use the tom tom drums rather than hi hats and cymbals.
  4. ^ Garcia, Jane. "If Joke Could Kill [Jaz Coleman interview]". New Music News (14 June 1980). [The Banshees ?] Paul, the drummer, likes them.
  5. ^ Tassell, Nige (12 January 2012). "Tori Amos, Kristin Hersh, Anton Corbin and more recall their big career firsts". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  6. ^ "The 50 Best Producers Ever: #40 – Steve Lillywhite". NME. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  7. ^ a b Halford, Grace (2 July 2001). "Artist's work 'greatly influenced' by Kildare". kildare.ie. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  8. ^ Paytress, Mark (2003). Siouxsie & the Banshees: The Authorised Biography. Sanctuary. ISBN 1-86074-375-7.
  9. ^ Frame, Pete. Pete Frame's Rockin' Around Britain. Omnibus, 1999. ISBN 0-7119-6973-6, ISBN 978-0-7119-6973-5
  10. ^ Dunne, Tom (14 September 2016). "Audio Interview: Kenny Morris of Siouxsie and the". Newstalk.com. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  11. ^ "196: Budgie (The Slits, Siouxsie Sioux and The Banshees, The Creatures, John Grant) - interview". Thetrapset.net. 2 January 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2024. "[from 00:32:55 Looking back the first album The Scream there are a lot of percussion overdubs, they are really part of the songs."
  12. ^ "Kenny Morris - La Main Morte". Alicerabbit. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  13. ^ "Kenny Morris - km videos". Kenny Morris on YouTube. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  14. ^ Pete Frame; John Peel (October 1998). "Rock Family Trees: The Banshees and Other Creatures". BBC on Youtube. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  15. ^ Kenny Morris art. Facebook. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  16. ^ "Kenny Morris at Hive Gallery Waterford". Waterfordarts.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Retropopic 543 - Kenny Morris Talks: Early Days, 'The Scream', 'Join Hands' & Leaving The Banshees". Retropopic. January 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  18. ^ a b Robb, John (13 February 2024). "Kenny Morris (former Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer) announces prestigious art show in Dublin called A Banshee Left Wailing". Louderthanwar.com. Retrieved 14 February 2024.